Review: A Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

I read this book for the 12 Days of Diversity Readathon, but it’s been on my TBR for a long time so I was really excited to read it! It is also a retelling of one of my favorite myths (the story of Hades and Persephone), so I’m pretty sure I was bound to enjoy it, which I did. It tells the story of Maya, born under a bad star and discriminated against due to her horoscope by her father’s wives and children. When she is wed to Amar, he takes her to the faraway land of Akaran, which is a magical place. As she grows into her relationship with Amar, and her role as his queen, she begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding her new husband, and things get a tad more complicated from there.

I really enjoyed the addition of Hindu mythology to this story. It really deepened the lore, the beauty, and the magic of the story. Though I wasn’t as familiar with this mythology, it was infused into the story itself and the world was really well built without too much direct exposition. There were a wealth of beautiful settings and beautiful descriptions of those settings, though they seemed to lack a little bite at times. I also liked how the world incorporated aspects of Indian culture into the story.

Another strength of the book was the story. It was a bit slow at first, but the first part really helped me get the feel of the story and make judgments about how I felt about characters. I also feel like the set-up was useful in giving urgency and suspense to the second part of the story. I also liked most of the characters, though Maya occasionally got on my nerves when she made silly decisions. Regardless, I found the story to be enjoyable and hard to put down.

Overall, I really liked this story. I recommend it to you if you like books like The Wrath and the Dawn, and retellings that infuse different mythologies to make the story fresher and different. An enjoyable way to spend my time!